The candidates aspiring for the corner office in the State House both seemed to enjoy polite and civil debate, but they agree on little else. Republican gubernatorial candidate Ovide Lamontagne faulted his Democratic opponent, Maggie Hassan, for her support of the controversial 2009 “LLC Tax” at Rivier University on Thursday night.

“She said ‘Well, we didn’t do a good enough job explaining it to the people,’” Lamontagne said. “No, you did the wrong thing by adopting that tax to begin with!”

Hassan continued to tie Lamontagne to the state’s conservative and controversial legislature.

“A legislature whose leadership, I regret to say my, opponent has supported and praised,” she said.

The candidates also clashed over education police.

Hassan said the reason she talks about the legislature’s “tea party” nature is because it tried to repeal New Hampshire kindergarten.

“The question for Ovide is, as governor, would he repeal it -- and he’s indicated he would,” Hassan said.

Lamontagne said he supports kindergarten, but believes the decisions about public kindergarten should be made by parents, taxpayers and teachers at the local level.

However there was one point of limited consensus: commuter rail. Both lamented the executive council’s decision to decline funds from Washington to study the concept.

“I would have supported that study, but I would have worked with the federal government to make sure that money wasn't spent entirely unless we phased it in,” Lamontagne said. “I do think we should look at seriously having Nashua serve as a terminus for a rail system coming up to Southern New Hampshire."

Hassan said she hopes officials study whether they could bring rail up to Manchester because it could prompt a Manchester International Airport.